Why the most common argument offered for every failure of Modi Govt is a false flag

For every failure of Modi Govt, the most common argument offered is “Have to undo what Congress did for 60 years”. A lot of Modi bhakts have that argument on the tip of their tongue and now it has been adopted by others too who may not necessarily be bhakts but are swayed by the common discourse. To me, that is the most pedestrian argument ever.

Let us assume that Congress did a lot of scams, which is the most deep-seated grouse and a just one. 2G, 3G, Coal etc. But how does that effect the Governance of the present day Government?

A Government is always about doing things and not ‘undoing’. As far as doing is concerned, BJP and Narendra Modi have put every possible promise in what they call the Manifesto which they released on the eve of the first phase of 2014 elections while other parties had released their manifestos well in advance. In addition to that, Narendra Modi made new promises in every rally of his. Let us enlist some of these promises and figure out whether “sixty years of Congress rule (SYOCR)” is actually stopping the Govt from doing the needful as Modi Govt and its bhakts widely claim.

The posts of Central Vigilance Commissioner, Central Information Co-missioner and Lokpal weren’t filled for a year while Modi promised transparency. Even when these posts have been filled now, their are grave doubts about the people who have been appointed to these positions with both Ram Jethmalani and Prashant Bhushan writing letters to the Prime Minister with evidence about CVC KV Chowdhury’s wrongdoings.

Modi Govt promised to bring back black money. Now let us for once assume that the 15 lakh per person claim was just election rhetoric (Jumla in Amit Shah’s words) and that the money will actually go to Government’s coffers if it does come back. But the SIT deadline was 31st March 2015, what happened to that?

While Rajnath Singh furiously argued in the Parliament that farmers should have the right to refuse through a consent clause during the 2013 UPA land bill, they have very conveniently removed the consent clause in their own land bill.

Modi Govt promised increased MSP (Minimum Support Price) for the farmers, have farmers seen any extra MSP? In fact, so many farmers had issues of not getting Urea and the unseasonal rainfall and hail has worsened their woes. No wonder the rate of farmer suicides has shot up and is in fact more than what it was in the Congress regime in the preceding few years. However different state government including BJP’s newly appointed Govt in Haryana are giving pittance as compensation for crop damage. Why no increased MSP, where is the compensation for farmers?

Why were the heads of so many IITs and IIMs vacant for months together?

Why is the growth in the eight core sectors which includes cement, steel, coal etc going down rapidly? It was 6.7% in November 2014, 2.4 in Dec, 1.8 in Jan, 1.4 in Feb and now -0.1 in March. One thing that Modi for sure promised was ‘Development’. Do these numbers look like one of a ‘Developing’ country?

While motorcycle sales declined for the 6th straight month in March, sales of tractors were down by 10 per cent indicating rural distress and distress among lower middle class. Sales of real estate in both residential as well as commercial sectors is down, with Ahmedabad being the worst in sale of commercial real estate. If there’s so much development, why do people not have the money to buy things?

Narendra Modi promised to get rid of criminals in the Parliament and promised to have a committe to look into these matters within 6 months of coming into power. Where is that committee?

Narendra Modi promised OROP (One rank One pension) for the Army, has it been implemented yet? Especially, since he professes his love for the Army till no end. Infact, what his Govt did was to oppose benefits for disabled army men in the Supreme Court. So while Narendra Modi spent 780 crores of Government’s money in just advertisements, he apparently has none for either disabled army men or farmers.

Arun Jaitley claimed that he’ll change the income tax slab to 5 lakhs from the present 2.5 lakhs. That didn’t happen, but what happened was a huge reduction of Corporate tax and his statement that “Middle class will take care of themselves”.

I can go on enumerating these promises that BJP has made and miserably failed at, but that will take for ever. Now what do any of the aforementioned points have anything to do with 60 years of Congress rule? From growth numbers going down to distress in rural and lower middle class to promises of black money, OROP etc, how would 60 years of Congress rule have any bearing on this?

Fact is that Narendra Modi Government has failed in delivering after getting the kind of mandate they did in 2014 Elections and this “undoing 60 years of Congress rule” is the propaganda they hope the general populace will buy and not catch them by the scruff of their neck.

If Congress volunteers can get over the hyperbole they indulge through hashtags like #RGWithShivji‬ and get over peddling soft hindutva, they’d probably be able to counter such lame propaganda that they have fallen to.

And well for those who disagree with me and are eager to dish out the Congressi label for me, go ahead and do so, because that is the limitation of your intellect.

3 COMMENTS

Hi Pratik,
I have read each and every of your pieces quite carefully, since i find them quite informative. Hope you return the favor. Points 1 through 4 and 10 are absolutely spot on. Shame on Modi for all of them. However Point 5 and 6 deserve a closer scrutiny. Undoubtedly growth is most core sectors is declining. The reason for the same is astronomical interest rates, which refuse to come down, leading to very high cost of capital and hence no fresh investments. Since Rajan took over in 2013, Interest rates have been on a one way path, and i dont blame him. Raging Inflation left very little headroom for him to slash Interest rates. The threat of inflation continues this till very day. Which raises the basic question, what causes inflation.
Few days back you had posted something like if all countries are in debt, than who are we indebted too. The way Governments raise money is by taking on debt from central banks, who in turn print more money to service this debt. If this debt is not paid back, it leads to inflation since there is simply more paper money to go about without any change in core production.
The economist way of solving this problem is via stimulus packages to artificially lower interest rates, which lead to growth in production proportional to growth in paper money, thus containing inflation. Whether Raghuram Rajan / Modi will be able to pull it off is anybody’s guess. However, this is a problem which should have been addressed long back and the past UPA governments are responsible for shoving this problem under the carpet, for a later govt. to tackle.

At the 2-day National Executive meet of the BJP on Sunday, Venkaiah Naidu said,”Modi is god’s gift for India. He is the messiah of the poor.” If that is true, then after what happened in Delhi and Bihar, it should be apparent that people are asking god if he/she has a return policy for gifts. People clearly don’t like this gift. Related